The sanctions against Russian have resulted in a shortfall of $160 billion, but Russian companies are paying off their debts successfully and have got through peak payments, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
“After [oil] prices fell from $100 to $50 barrel, $160 billion out of
500 [billion] failed to reach our economy. Moreover our quasi-partners
restricted access for our banks to refinancing on the European market,”
Putin said at a session of the Legislators’ Council in St. Petersburg.
He said that last year, Russian banks and companies were due to pay
$130 billion in current loans to foreign partners, and another $60
billion this year.
“It looks like somebody was counting on some sort of collapse: we
have a shortfall of $160 billion, and we are supposed to pay $130
[billion] plus $60 [billion]. But there has been no collapse. The
Russian economy has surmounted these artificial barriers fairly easily,”
he said.
“Our enterprises have paid off all their own credits fairly easily:
last year $130 billion, and they’ve also already paid off a significant
amount of $60 billion due in the first quarter. We’ve got through the
peak payments,” he said.
